K12 Education Technology Discussion with Jim Heynderickx

I’ve been enjoying the Strava cycling and running app and website on my iPhone 5. I’ve been using it to record all of my cycling for the past couple of months. I even picked up a Polar heartrate device that talks to the iPhone via the new, low power Bluetooth protocol, so the Strava app can record speed, distance, heartrate, elevation gain, gps, etc., and compare my stats to several thousand others online.

Through Strava, I learned about the Rapha Festive 500, a world-wide challenge to cyclists to ride 500 km between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. That’s about 50 miles a day for seven days in a row, in the middle of winter, so it is a bit of a challenge. Also, all miles had to be recorded and “proved” by the Strava system.

So, I signed up and my son joined in about half of the rides over the last week for his own “Festive 250” accomplishment. To ride 500 km in London in December means rain, cold and some night riding, all of which went fine. We finished both of our challenges yesterday and we posted a photo gallery of the ride.

Here’s a sample image:

It felt great to get in so many miles (330) in the last week of the year. Doug and I are planning two to three weeks of cycle touring in France this summer.